Scars
by websurffer
Summary: 10/Rose. The Doctor has been avoiding planets with telepaths for this very reason. Somewhat dark, semi-disturbing themes. One-shot.


The Doctor shivered violently, gasping for air. Being in a cold stone cell was nothing new. But this particular planet…why had they had to land on this planet?

He'd been making a point of avoiding any planet with telepaths. He knew that anyone even remotely sensitive would feel the massive damage that had savaged through his mind with the death of his people. And they'd know it was his fault. His and his alone.

Unfortunately, rather than being sympathetic towards him, the people here had been completely horrified. They'd locked him away without anything to help him or keep him warm in this cold stone cell.

He shivered harder.

The worst bit was the guards. They couldn't help but look into his mind, just tiny brushes, like humans looking at a car wreck. Stunned by the devastation. And it was a violation, such a violation, but god help him it felt good too. Any mental contact that wasn't screaming and death and pain was such a relief to his abused psyche.

And then they threw Rose into his cell.

She froze immediately after staggering through the door. He knew he was a mess but by the look on Rose's face it must have been much worse than he had thought. He tried to straighten and pull himself together enough to give his mad grin, to reassure her.

A guard's mind brushed his, a touch more firmly than the others.

Gasping, his back arched and he scrabbled at the floor. Tears ran down his cheeks and he bared his teeth, panting heavily. Rose dropped to her knees and patted uselessly at his shoulders, obviously unsure how to help.

"Doctor? Doctor, what is it? What's wrong?"

"It's..ah, they're telepaths. They keep, touching my mind. I'm just not…used to it anymore. And it's very…" He stopped, gasping for air.

She gathered him gently against her, resting her back against the corner. His shivering lessened slightly as her higher body temperature seeped into his skin. Her soft warmth after the icy sharpness of the stone floor of the cell was such a relief that the Doctor could barely restrain a sob.

"Wha' can I do to help? There's got to be something I can do."

It was hard to think. So many minds chattering in the background, the occasional one brushing up against his, but he knew there was something. Something to do with Rose not being psychic herself….

"I…I think I can hide in your mind. Maybe. It requires a lot of…trust….but it…might work.."

Rose looked hesitant for the barest moment before his shivering increased again. "Righ'. What 'ave I go'ta do?"

"Just….sit. Sit and be still and just…sit."

Carefully he aligned his hands on her temples, keeping curled up in her warmth as much as he could. Contact established, the Doctor very carefully eased out of his mind and into hers. She shivered slightly, aware of the contact but unable to tell what exactly it was she was feeling. Like a blind man given sight and seeing colours for the very first time, knowing the names for them but still feeling bewildered by these strange new things.

As gently as he could, the Doctor wormed his way into the 19 years of her life that had no mental contact. He skirted around Rose's connection with the TARDIS, trying to spare his ship as much as he could. She could already feel his pain but if he came into contact with Rose's link the TARDIS would feel it twice as strongly. The Doctor had gone as deeply into Rose as he dared and so stopped, his mental self woven into the spaces the weave of her psyche had left. He shifted slightly to escape a guard and accidentally brushed against her memories of Satellite 5.

And then something changed.

He probably should have remembered about Bad Wolf, but he was feeling fairly traumatized. And nothing else had set it off before. He'd really thought that particular chapter of Rose's life was safely ended. And really it would have been, but he, **her** Doctor, was safely held within her mind and a guard had tried to get through to touch him again.

The guard didn't stand a chance.

Furious mental energy rippled out from Rose's centre. She threw all her energy into the attack, drawing the Doctor further into herself at the same time. His awareness of the physical blinked out and the mindscape formed before his eyes.

Rose was a towering wolf, time energy swirling in her eyes and churning up with the movement of her feet. Gleaming white teeth snapped and snarled at the hazy grey figures that represented the much weaker guards. When a sweep of her tail caused one of the guards to vanish into unconsciousness, the Doctor knew he needed to do something to distract her.

He knew that Rose wouldn't want the deaths of all these people on her conscience.

Gathering himself as much as he could, he broadcast all his pain and his growing numbness, which was quite frankly more frightening than the pain, directly to Rose. Her wolf self froze and flickered, allowing him to see the woman.

"Rose, please."

And she was there, arms wrapped around him and lips pressed against him. Her love and forgiveness caressed over his self hatred and guilt. To his shock, he felt the edges of the scars recede slightly, softening into extremely sensitive, but healthy, mental tissue. His lips crashed into hers before he was even aware of himself moving.

Lips pressed together, tongues gliding smoothly in a dance as old as time itself, they shifted and pressed against each other. Rose arched up before gliding down onto his cock, impaling herself. His psychic manifestation boiled out of him in a wave of darkness and thunder, mixing with her howls. Wind and rain caressed fur, and claws dug wonderfully into clouds.

The lightning struck and the wolf howled and the world _stopped_.

As awareness seeped back in the Doctor realized that, not only had they had an audience for most of that, but with their climax they had knocked out all of the guards. Most of the conscious minds in the area were feeling distinctly buffeted as well. He felt more whole than he had in years, and as he looked into Rose's golden eyes he knew it was due to her.

"Hello."

The gold seeped out of her eyes, the familiar brown taking over once more. "Hello."

"What do you say to getting out of here?"

"Alright…"

The Oncoming Storm and the Bad Wolf walked out of the cell, hand in hand.

And if they happened to kick a few unconscious guards on the way out, well who could really blame them.


End file.
